Random Running Questions

Bananaleaf

Spirogyra wrote: »

Any tips for ensuring balance during squats, mine seems quite poor and not great in general ? Thanks

If you have access to a gym with TRX equipment, try the squats using the TRX ropes.

Useless advice if you don't though, I know.

Bananaleaf

Was reading through another thread where a poster is looking to get a sub 20 5k. One of the pieces of advice was to 'add strides' to the ends of the slower runs. This is something that appeals to me rather than too many hard sessions, which I feel are eroding my love of running. However, I obviously would like a small improvement on my times nonetheless.

Just wondering if anyone could elaborate on this. As in, how long should the strides be and how many should I do at the end of a session.

TIA

TFBubendorfer

Bananaleaf wrote: »

Was reading through another thread where a poster is looking to get a sub 20 5k. One of the pieces of advice was to 'add strides' to the ends of the slower runs. This is something that appeals to me rather than too many hard sessions, which I feel are eroding my love of running. However, I obviously would like a small improvement on my times nonetheless.

Just wondering if anyone could elaborate on this. As in, how long should the strides be and how many should I do at the end of a session.

TIA

Strides should be roughly 100 meters of very fast running. Accelerate gradually over the first 50 and hold the effort for the rest. You should be running fast but not quite all-out, instead you should always remain in full control of the effort.

They are mostly a neuro-muscular workout, teaching your legs and your brain how to activate the fibres in order to run fast. Therefore you need to make sure you are fully recovered before the next stride, so recovery is quite long - as long as you need.

Start with as few as 2 strides and then build the number up gradually, to about 8 or 10. If you're getting tired, or for some other reason can't get up to speed properly any more, stop the session immediately, there is no benefit in doing them half-heartedly.

Don't sweat the numbers. If they are 80 meters instead of 100, that's perfectly fine. You can do them several times per week, as long as your legs are fine.

However, and that's the bit you won't want to hear, they are not a replacement for hard sessions. Sessions are primarily designed to build your cardio-vascular system, strides are neuro-muscular. Ideally you should be doing both (though not at the same time).

RayCun

If you feel you are doing too many hard sessions and you are not enjoying running, you need to reassess your training.

Swashbuckler

+1 to what Ray said. How hard are these sessions? Not every session is meant to be balls to the wall all out effort.

Bananaleaf

Thanks all

1 speed work session, 1 hill session, 1 long run and two shorter runs.

That's the week plan, basically. Don't always do hills, sometimes just a slower run.

The problem is that up to now I've been running with the running club,who are all way better than me, even the slower ones. I've been trying to keep up, which has meant that the sessions, while meant to be easy, have been hard for me.

So what has happened over the past month or longer is that I've just abandoned all speedwork and I'm running everything slow. Not going to the speed sessions and just doing a slower run myself

I'd like to get to their level (I'm roughly 1min per mile behind them) so am going to start doing things at my own pace, but want to add the strides to the longer and slower runs to try get a bit better also. I'd like to return to doing the club training days - speed day and hill day, but I need to accept I'm slower than the others, then if I do the remaining sessions alone I'm not putting myself under pressure to keep up.

Hopefully that will make sense.

Swashbuckler

Yeah it certainly looks like you're hammering every session which is just hard to maintain both physically and mentally over the course of multiple weeks. There is a place for hammering a session every now and then but you'd be better served to run your sessions in a more controlled manner. Not sure if its feasible to do the same session as the club but fall back a bit. I can see how that's not an attractive prospect. But you can't keep flogging yourself.

The set-up of your week looks decent to be fair and if you're regularly stringing together five days a week then you're on the right track. As for adding strides, that will obviously benefit you but that doesn't seem to be where your issue is. As said above, strides are no replacement for sessions. What you should do is address your approach to the sessions as opposed to just adding strides.

Sunny Dayz

Wondering how do you record a treadmill run on a Garmin watch or strava? Do you just enter the distance and time in manually to strava or is there a way of recording it on your watch?
I’ve a forerunner 10 watch which I upload to strava.

Cartman78

Sunny Dayz wrote: »

Wondering how do you record a treadmill run on a Garmin watch or strava? Do you just enter the distance and time in manually to strava or is there a way of recording it on your watch?
I’ve a forerunner 10 watch which I upload to strava.

Some Garmin models claim to be able to track treadmill distances but in my experience (with a 230) it's really only a guestimate and gets more inaccurate the faster and/or further I run.

I'd say a footpod device is probably the best option (?)

Cartman78

Actually, now that I'm here, I have a random question of my own....

Re: Intervals

Is there any generally accepted guideline for choosing the length of rest period? Or does it depend on what you want to get from the session??

I generally use 30 secs for 400m, 60 secs for 800m and 90 secs for 1K.....but I have no idea why to be honest.
Cheers cm

Huzzah!

Sunny Dayz wrote: »

Wondering how do you record a treadmill run on a Garmin watch or strava? Do you just enter the distance and time in manually to strava or is there a way of recording it on your watch?
I’ve a forerunner 10 watch which I upload to strava.

I just turn off the GPS on my 220 when on the treadmill and then mark it as a treadmill run when uploading to Garmin Connect. Not sure how accurate it is but it seems close enough for an easy run anyway.

Swashbuckler

Sunny Dayz wrote:

Wondering how do you record a treadmill run on a Garmin watch or strava? Do you just enter the distance and time in manually to strava or is there a way of recording it on your watch? I’ve a forerunner 10 watch which I upload to strava.

Just input manual activity

Krusty_Clown

Cartman78 wrote: »

Some Garmin models claim to be able to track treadmill distances but in my experience (with a 230) it's really only a guestimate and gets more inaccurate the faster and/or further I run.

I'd say a footpod device is probably the best option (?)

Yep, if you want accuracy (or close to it) then a footpod is the way to go, but I doubt it will connect to a Forerunner 10. The footpod needs to be calibrated outside using GPS (to associate your pace with stride length etc), but still needs manual adjustment once indoors. I can usually get within 100m of actual treadmill distance (well calibrated treadmill) for distances of 10+ miles. I do find that it does a bit of rounding so expect live pace to be rounded up or down to the nearest 5 seconds/km.

Sunny Dayz

Thanks all for the replies in relation to recording a treadmill run. I'm not going to fork out for a footpod and my running watch is fairly basic.
Plus it's a one off treadmill run for an hour or so. Think I'll just note the distance and time from the treadmill display and manually enter it.

Casey78

Sunny Dayz wrote: »

Wondering how do you record a treadmill run on a Garmin watch or strava? Do you just enter the distance and time in manually to strava or is there a way of recording it on your watch?
I’ve a forerunner 10 watch which I upload to strava.

Get yourself a footpod and check out Zwift Run.

ReeReeG

Cartman78 wrote: »

Actually, now that I'm here, I have a random question of my own....

Re: Intervals

Is there any generally accepted guideline for choosing the length of rest period? Or does it depend on what you want to get from the session??

I generally use 30 secs for 400m, 60 secs for 800m and 90 secs for 1K.....but I have no idea why to be honest.
Cheers cm

I'm not an expert at all but I recently asked someone ( v experienced runner) about recovery time for 500s as I'd no idea. He explained it as shorter intervals mean boosting endurance overall, as you're going again on shorter recovery, and the longer recovery times are for when you want to help your speed, as you've reovered more to tackle each repeat harder... it did make sense to me at the time!

Salthillprom

Took a fairly nasty fall this eve near end of a long run. My knee is in a bad state. I don’t think I broke any bones but it’s very cut and swollen. I’ve ice on it now and I’m debating a hot bath. Is this the best course of action?..I need my knee back to working order ASAP as I’ve a big race next month. Thanks

Swashbuckler

Salthillprom wrote:

Took a fairly nasty fall this eve near end of a long run. My knee is in a bad state. I don’t think I broke any bones but it’s very cut and swollen. I’ve ice on it now and I’m debating a hot bath. Is this the best course of action?..I need my knee back to working order ASAP as I’ve a big race next month. Thanks

Go to a doctor

Salthillprom

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Go to a doctor

I would but it’s out of hours and I’m here alone with my kids (nobody else to mind them) so I’m looking for some advice to get me through the night without causing further damage. Thanks for your advice though.

Swashbuckler

Apologies I thought you meant what should you do over the next few weeks. My bad.

28064212

Hot bath is unlikely to do any harm, may help. Just keep off it as much as you can until you get a proper medical diagnosis.

Kellygirl

Salthillprom wrote: »

Took a fairly nasty fall this eve near end of a long run. My knee is in a bad state. I don’t think I broke any bones but it’s very cut and swollen. I’ve ice on it now and I’m debating a hot bath. Is this the best course of action?..I need my knee back to working order ASAP as I’ve a big race next month. Thanks

That’s very annoying. Clean it up best you can and keep icing it, rest and elevate it. Personally I wouldn’t have the hot bath as the ice and keeping it up will hopefully help it instead.

Fingers crossed it will be better in the morning but go get it checked out if you are struggling to put weight on it or anything like that.

roosterman71

It's usually ice for the first few days to help keep swelling down. Then heat after that to encourage blood flow. At least thats what I was told when I hurt my shoulder a few weeks back, so it may not apply to the legs

Salthillprom

roosterman71 wrote: »

It's usually ice for the first few days to help keep swelling down. Then heat after that to encourage blood flow. At least thats what I was told when I hurt my shoulder a few weeks back, so it may not apply to the legs

Thanks v much. I’ll keep icing it for now.

TFBubendorfer

Rest the knee as much as you can, don't put any pressure on it and if you feel the need then take some paracetamol to help you sleep. Don't worry, you are not going to damage anything just by sitting around with the kids. If anything you do makes it feel uncomfortable, well, then don't do that.

If anything's broken you obviously need to see a doctor but if you think there isn't then I wouldn't bother. Cuts will heal and swelling is perfectly normal in that case - uncomfortable but not alarming on its own. It's up to you but personally I'd wait a couple of days and only see a doctor if it doesn't get better after 3 or so days.

Oh, and if anything I'f avoid hot baths and ice it instead.

28064212

The whole RICE protocol (Rest Ice Compress Elevate) has been fairly thoroughly debunked by the doctor who proposed it in the first place. A level of inflammation is beneficial in speeding up recovery. He has a "recommendations" section at the end of that article that's worth reviewing

Coffee Fulled Runner

Could anyone recommend some running related channels on YouTube please?

Testosterscone

Cartman78 wrote: »

Actually, now that I'm here, I have a random question of my own....

Re: Intervals

Is there any generally accepted guideline for choosing the length of rest period? Or does it depend on what you want to get from the session??

I generally use 30 secs for 400m, 60 secs for 800m and 90 secs for 1K.....but I have no idea why to be honest.
Cheers cm

This is usually where the coach comes into play. There are so many variables from fitness level, target distance, number of reps and depending on what you wanna get from the session.

If you are targeting a particular pace you are looking to run a target race at many will increase the recovery in the early stages of the training block to get used to the pace and effort. So say maybe 5/6x1k with 2.30-3.00 recovery in early stages a few times to get your body ready for the likes of maybe 8x800m with 60/75 sec closer to the race time.

Recoveries don't always have to be the same either. You can manage them as sets to get cumulative fatigue as a pre requisite for longer reps later. So for example the following

4x(3x400m w/ 30 seconds) 3 min between sets
3x(4x400m w/ 30 seconds) 3 min between sets
3x(2x800m w/ 30 seconds) 3 min between sets
3 x 1 mile w/ 3 min between

Likewise you can have different recoveries to modulate effort (reducing recoveries as session goes on so effort increases while pace stays the same similar to a race)

The possibilities are endless but ask yourself why for any session. Many of us set to a prescribed recovery which equates to a particular physiological response but that might not always be the best, someone with a tendency to go out too hard early on might need to increase recovery to maintain effort and reduce injury risk as session goes on while other may need reduced recoveries sometimes to really get them used to having to dig in if mentally they can switch off.

Many of the sessions I prescribe have huge variety in them simply because I am trying to get different things from different sessions even if I am still targetting certain physiological benefits.

Testosterscone

Coffee Fulled Runner wrote: »

Could anyone recommend some running related channels on YouTube please?

Any particular topics or area's in particular?

Testosterscone

28064212 wrote: »

The whole RICE protocol (Rest Ice Compress Elevate) has been fairly thoroughly debunked by the doctor who proposed it in the first place. A level of inflammation is beneficial in speeding up recovery. He has a "recommendations" section at the end of that article that's worth reviewing

Just a caveat on this.

If the swelling and inflammation are excessive they can affect range of motion which can affect speed of recovery as much if not more. Active recovery is becoming the big treatment approach in injuries (both in humans and in veterinary practices). Ice can be effective and beneficial in the very acute stages of injuries like this (as opposed to more common running overuse issues)

Given the the OP hasn't been diagnosed though pain management till you are able to get it looked at.

Edit: Probably should have read the recommendations first